A mentally challenged man was allowed to board an Air Canada plane with a Costco card as ID. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

Transport Canada says it will investigate the case of an Alberta couple who say their mentally disabled son was allowed to buy an Air Canada ticket and board a flight with only his Costco and Visa cards as identification.

Federal rules require airlines to get some kind of government-issued identification from every passenger boarding a plane.

Either one piece of photo identification or two pieces without a photo are acceptable. Names are cross-referenced with a no-fly list to weed out potential terrorist threats.

"Airlines can be fined up to $25,000 per occurrence of non-compliance, and our government will not hesitate to take appropriate actions if necessary," a department spokeswoman said in an email.

When Doug Tiedeman met an Ontario woman on Facebook who shared his rabid interest in Star Trek, he figured the logical next step was to hop on an Air Canada plane in Calgary to meet her in person.

The 21-year-old, who has cerebral palsy and functions at the mental age of a 12-year-old, called a cab and directed the driver over 100 kilometres south to Calgary's airport from his home in Blackfalds, Alta.

'We're frustrated that something like this could happen and we just hope that it doesn't happen to any other family — that they have to go through what we went through.'—Simone Tiedeman, stepmother

His family and police spent 24 hours trying to track him down before finally finding him at the airport in London, Ont., where he was waiting, alone and scared, far from home.

Now his family wants answers from Air Canada.

"I hope that other families do not have to go through this," Tiedeman's stepmother, Simone, said from her home in Blackfalds. "That would be my main goal."

Air Canada said it is investigating the incident.

Further frustration

The Tiedemans' frustration with the airline isn't just about the identification.

Simone Tiedeman said the family knew their son had probably taken an Air Canada flight because they checked the last number he dialled on the phone and got the reservation centre. But because he is 21, she said, the airline refused to release any information about where he was going.

It wasn't until the RCMP got involved that the airline gave the details.

'Airlines can be fined up to $25,000 per occurrence of non-compliance, and our government will not hesitate to take appropriate actions if necessary.' —Transport Canada

She said the airline also gave the family grief when they tried to get her son home because, ironically, he didn't have the proper ID to fly.

And now the airline won't discuss the case with them, she said, because a waiver he signed giving the airline permission to talk about his case wasn't accepted — again because he didn't have the proper ID.

The airline said its hands are tied by privacy laws.

"In the absence of proof of legal guardianship, we were unable to provide the Tiedemans with their son's personal travel information," it said in the statement.

"We trust the Tiedemans recognize our responsibility to comply with law governing individuals' rights to privacy, and we are in contact directly with the Tiedemans to try to resolve this matter."

The parents never applied for legal guardianship because they never thought their son would do something like this, Simone Tiedeman said.

Now family members are watching his activities on the internet a lot more closely and are limiting his credit card access.

"We're hurt," she said. "We're frustrated that something like this could happen and we just hope that it doesn't happen to any other family — that they have to go through what we went through."